The Pittsburgh Pirates fired Derek Shelton earlier this week. But the team\u2019s issues go far beyond the manager, as ownership\u2019s missteps alienate a frustrated fan base.<\/p>\n
SportsNet Pittsburgh may try to mute the \u201cSell the team\u201d chants<\/a>, but this isn\u2019t a problem you can just tune out. The Pirates are a problem \u2014 they have a perception problem, a Paul Skenes problem<\/a>. ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan is on a mission<\/a> to show Major League Baseball fans why Pittsburgh is not only an aberration to the league but also a glaring example of what happens when ownership fails to engage and a franchise is perpetually mired in mediocrity.<\/p>\n Bob Costas isn\u2019t necessarily on the same crusade, but he recognizes the organization\u2019s deep flaws.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re the Pittsburgh Pirates and if you\u2019re a long-suffering fan, and you\u2019re right, they have a great baseball history,\u201d Costas told Dan Patrick on The Dan Patrick Show. \u201cThey have one of the best ballparks in the major leagues. And they flounder constantly.<\/p>\n \u201cThink about this, though, Dan. There are 10 teams in the two central divisions in the major leagues. Only one of them is in the top half of payrolls. That\u2019s the Cubs at 10th. Next is the Tigers at 17th. Half of the six playoff teams last year in the American League came from the AL Central. The Tigers, the Royals, and the Guardians, and the Twins, who have now had the trap door open on them, but the Twins were barely outside that group \u2014 they were alive in that last week.<\/p>\n \u201cOther than the Cubs, in theory, who\u2019s going to outspend the Pirates in the National League Central? One of the things that mitigates the admittedly large payroll gaps is the third Wild Card, whether you like it or not. You can say, \u2018Hey, if we can win 85-86 wins, we have a chance to get in the postseason.\u2019 And the history shows even the Dodgers, they lost to the Padres 2-3 years ago; they lost to the Diamondbacks. And they were down 2-1 to the Padres last year before they rallied to win the Division Series. It\u2019s not a guarantee that the best teams and the highest payroll teams make it through to the World Series, if you can just get into the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n The Phillies, Diamondbacks, and even the Mets, in recent years, have proven the theory that you just need a ticket to the dance. As long as you get your foot in the door, you have a chance. The Pirates have no chance. They last signed a free agent to a multi-year deal (Ivan Nova) when Barack Obama was still in office in November 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to be harsh, but what\u2019s the Pirates\u2019 excuse?\u201d Costas asked. \u201cThey play a huge percentage of their games within the National League Central, with other teams that aren\u2019t running away from them, payroll-wise. And you got a second and third Wild Card. You don\u2019t have an excuse to be this bad this consistently for this long.\u201d<\/p>\n In the era of expanded playoffs, there\u2019s really no excuse for the Pirates to stay stuck in the cellar of the NL Central. Other teams with similar payrolls have found ways to compete, but Pittsburgh\u2019s ownership has repeatedly failed to push the right buttons.<\/p>\n It\u2019s n longer about the team on the field or who writes the lineup; it\u2019s become about the leadership that\u2019s more comfortable coasting than actually trying to win.<\/p>\n Costas isn\u2019t the only one pointing out that the Pirates have no excuse for their sustained failure, having last clinched a playoff berth nearly a decade ago. But until something changes up top, the Pirates will keep spinning their wheels, stuck in a never-ending cycle of mediocrity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Pirates fired Derek Shelton earlier this week. But the team\u2019s issues go far beyond the manager,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,9099,4,10,776,64,4297,9100],"class_list":{"0":"post-19760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-pirates","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bob-costas","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-pirates","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","14":"tag-pittsburghpirates","15":"tag-the-dan-patrick-show"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114491916552058171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}